In the electroplating process, a metal plate is electrodeposited onto a work piece by immersing the work piece into an aqueous bath having a concentrated ionic metal species dissolved therein and cathodically biasing the work piece to reduce and plate the metal. The plated work piece is removed from the bath and cleansed with clean water to rinse away residual plating solution dragged out with it. This rinse water becomes increasingly contaminated by low concentrations of the particular plating materials utilized during the electroplating process.
The accumulation of metal ions in processed water utilized in the field of electroplating and etching procedures requires treatment of waste water prior to disposal in the environment. While various methods of recovering metal ions from processed water have been utilized in the prior art, they typically suffer from one of two major problems: (1) great expense involved in the equipment utilized in the process, or (2) a relatively low efficiency in removing metal ions from the waste water.